Materialized Destiny
by TheCraziestOfAll
Summary: "Think about it this way. Your destiny does not create who you are. Who you are creates your destiny..." Sora whispers under his voice. He then rubs his eyes and says with frustration, "Who am I kidding. Destiny will always be destiny. Nothing will change it." Rated T for now, but might change. SxK, RxN, and possibly others.
1. Destiny's Mark

**A.N. Hello ladies and gentlemen! And welcome to my domain, aka story. So I personally have not written anything for fun in a REALLY long time, so hopefully this isn't too bad to satisfy your reading pleasures. Anyhow, I just wanted to introduce myself as TheCraziestOfAll, and I hope that you enjoy _Materialized Destiny. _**

* * *

_Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep_

"Hey… Hey!" a dry, drowsy voice escapes from underneath the bed covers. However, the desperate cry is met by utter silence from the other side of the dark dingy room.

_Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep_

"Sora, you lazy bastard… It's your turn to shut that piece of shit off!" This time, a slight ruffle responds from the abyss to the now very annoyed voice.

"Please… Five more minutes Roxas… I promise I'll get ready… Soon…"

_Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep_

"Fuck!" Roxas flings his bed cover off his body, quickly regretting that decision as a cold burst of air hits his bare arms and legs. His body undergoes a quick shudder to acclimate to the new temperature, and he rubs his eyes to try to get his eyes adjusted from his sleep. He slowly rises from his bed, drags his feet over to the alarm in the middle of the room, and slams his fist on the alarm and meets blissful silence.

"Well, that took way to much energy to turn off a damn alarm," Roxas says as he looks over to the other side of the room. He manages to see the twin bed in the darkness, and on the bed, the outline of the worthless maggot that he calls his roommate and brother. "Hey Sora, get up, its time to head to school."

"Mmmmm… One lemon cream pie… Oh… Heh heh… Don't mind if I do…," Sora whispers, his hand slowly lifting to grab the nonexistent lemon cream pie; his brain still in what ever dream world he is in right now.

'Why do I never videotape these moments again? Oh right, it's cause I'm a normal, kind, and amazing brother,' Roxas thinks to himself as he shakes his head. "Hey idiot, if you don't get up soon, I'm going to have to call in Riku."

"Ohhh… Cream puffs? Just for me?… Heh heh...," Roxas lets out a sigh and grabs his phone from on top of the table that also holds the almost destroyed alarm.

"Sora, I'm going to post the video of you in the pink llama costume singing karaoke at the bar on youtube now," Roxas says turning on his cell phone. And just milliseconds before he could even unlock his phone, Sora tackles Roxas, making both of them fall to the ground.

"You idiot! I'm still 18! Why would you do that!" Sora yelled at Roxas,his eyes flared with worry, his hands clinging to the Roxas's shirt like the world was going to end.

"Sora, get.. Off of… me," Roxas manages speak in between rasp breathing, his lungs being crushed by Sora weight. But Sora is too preoccupied with letting his mouth fly, ranting on and on about how their parents would surely have his testicles removed to know of Roxas's predicament. Talking isn't going to solve anything here.

"Sora. Get. The. Hell. Off!" and with that, Roxas lands a kick dead square into Sora's stomach, the impact shooting Sora to the other side of the room into a giant mountain of used clothes. After taking in a deep breath, Roxas picks himself up and pats his pants to get the dust off them and lets out a sigh.

"First of all, you never wore a pink llama costume and sang karaoke at a bar, you idiot. Second of all, if I had a video like that, it would've been posted a long time ago. Now get ready for school, we don't want to be late you idiot," With that Roxas walks out of the room. Within seconds, Sora's head pops out from underneath the unmanageable amount of used clothes.

"Geez, you could've just told me to get off," Sora states, walking out of his laundry. He walks out into their small living area, and over to the couch to take a seat. He plops down, kicks his leg up on the small table that they have in front of the TV, and hit the on button on the remote.

"Hey, what do you want for breakfast?" Roxas asks, taking out two bowls and a box of cereal, knowing Sora's answer before he even gave it.

"Cereal's fine," Sora states as he watches the TV. His eyes read the headline, but then land on the time. His eyes slowly open wider and wider, and he slowly turns his head towards Roxas. "Hey Roxas? What time do we have to be at school to get the tour and stuff?" Roxas looks over, genuinely surprised that Sora would take such matters into consideration.

"We are supposed to meet the guide at 9:25, why do you ask?" Roxas asks as he brings over the two bowls of cereal from the small kitchen to the living area where Sora is.

"Hahaha… Hey Roxas… It's 10:35…," Sora rubs the back of his monster brown spiked head, his authentic sheepish grin plaster on his face. Roxas quickly looks over to the clock on their kitchen, which reads 10:36 now. There is a moment of absolute silence, but in due time, the small apartment complex is in full hectic motion.

"Fuck, we didn't change our summer alarm! Quick, get dressed, we gotta jump!" Roxas yells as he throws Sora's bowl across the room. Sora barely catching the bowl shoves it to his mouth, letting the cereal funnel into his stomach. He puts the bowl down on the table once he finishes, and quickly runs back to his room, meeting his abomination of a closet just like his laundry. His jackets and hoodies barely manage to cling onto the coat hangers, and his boxers, shirts, and socks are overflowing from his drawer.

"Note to self, clean my closet," Sora states as he quickly shoves all of his coats to the left, and he finds his uniform that has been shoved to the end of the line and hidden away in the darkness for who knows how long. He quickly grabs the uniform, tears open the bag while coughing away the dust, and quickly changes out of his pjs.

"Hey, hurry up!" Sora puts on his blue long-sleeved suit shirts, puts on a white and blue striped tie, and grabs his white dress pants and white blazer. Sora doesn't have time to check the mirror one last time, and prays to whatever deity is looking down at him right now to make him look somewhat presentable to the world. He shoves one leg into the pants, and hops over to his apartment balcony, trying to get his other leg in his pants while holding on his blazer in his other arm. Roxas, looking at the mess in front of him, lets out a sigh white rubbing his eyes.

"You are probably the perfect example of a human train wreck right now," Roxas says opening the door to their second floor apartment balcony. Before Roxas can even walk out onto the balcony, Sora runs past him, his pants now on, and jumps off the side of the balcony.

"Last man to school is a rotten chocobo egg!" Roxas stands there rubbing his eyes, and eventually hears a loud thump, which was probably Sora landing on the hard cement.

"Sometimes, I really do question how we are even closely related," Roxas says, as he checks his tie one last time. "It's going to be one hell of a day," and he follows suit, jumping off the side of the balcony after his brother.

* * *

Sora and Roxas sprint down the streets, turning sharp corners, and jumping over fences to try to get to their school as quickly as possible. Even though Sora and Roxas do indeed work out, they are only human. Having sprinted around two miles with one half more to go because they missed the bus is definitely taking a heavy toll on their.

"Why… Why for the love of Santa's gingerbread cookies did we screw up on the first day!?" Sora yells out of frustration and exhaustion, leaning his arm against a street lamp, trying to catch his breath for the last half mile. Roxas has his hands on his knees, taking in deep full breaths, beads of sweat rolling down his face and onto the ground.

"Come on Sora, let's make this as quick as possible. It's 10:44 right now, we can make it there in around two minutes and a little more if we hussle," Roxas says. Wiping his forehead with the back of his hands, he exhaling one more time and sprints down the street. Sora stands there, still trying to catch his breath.

"Geez, we really can't take it easy here, can we?" Sora asks to some imaginary person, scratches the back of his head, and once again also starts to sprint down the street. As he sprints down, not too far off, a street camera slowly keeps its eye fixated on Sora.

"So that's the one?" The large TV monitor hanging on the dark side of the room shows Sora sprinting for his life, and a chuckle escapes from the man that's looking at him. The room is half lit by the windows, while the other half is still covered by darkness. The man is sitting on his desk, his back illuminated by the light, showing his classic black suit, and the back of his black, gel-spiked hair. The front of his body is covered by the shadows, facial features unable to be seen. However, his large grin emits this powerful feeling throughout the entire room, making its presence known, seen or not.

"So, what do you want to do?" The figure overlooking the monitor looks around to see a short teenage girl. The teenage girl is around 19 years of age, short, around five feet three inches, and she has short black hair that barely reaches her shoulders. She is wearing tan shorts, combat boots with knee high black stockings. Her top consists of a plain white t-shirt with a zipped up black vest, some orange gauntlets, and her iconic black head bandana is tied across her forehead. She however is giving a very sly grin, which means that she has something on her mind that she can't wait to show the world.

"Well Yuffie, you already seem to have something in mind to see if these boys can actually survive in this school. So I'll give you a bit of freedom to see if they pass or not," the man says, giving her the thumbs up. Yuffie's grin quickly changes to that of an obnoxiously large smile.

"Oh Zach,it's times like these where you makes me wonder if you actually care about the well being of your students," Yuffie says, as she starts walking towards the doors. Zach lets out a slight chuckle, and crosses his arms.

"I have hope Cloud. Hopefully your sons won't disappoint, me," Zach whispers, and he gets off the table, turns off the TV, and slowly walks towards the door as well.

* * *

The scene before the gates of Destiny's Mark is rather a strange yet humorous scene. On the ground is Sora, his arms and legs outstretched in random directions, and his face contorted with pain, his mouth open wide, as he struggles to let precious oxygen enter his lungs. Roxas is less dramatic with his back up against the gates. He closes his eyes, breathing through his nose to try and calm everything down, but his frown on his face shows that he is also in pain.

"Man, you call yourselves men, getting tired from just running that short of a distance," Roxas's eyes shoot open, and he quickly stands to be met by a girl, and from the looks of it, she is around their ages as well.

"Uh, can I help you?" Roxas asks as he wipes the last bit of sweat from his face, his heartbeat returning to normal. The girl in front of her puts her hands behind her head, walking over to where Sora seems to have… fallen asleep. She looks down at Sora, then back at Roxas, then back at Sora, then back at Roxas, and finally back down at Sora.

"Is he…" the mystery girl asks and she points down to where Sora is indeed asleep, her eyes twitching in almost disbelief at what she was seeing in front of her. Roxas lets out a sigh and walks over to the girl and his oh so dear brother who somehow managed to enter into a deep slumber.

"Sora, get up, or else I'm going to post that video of you grinding on that girl at the party a couple weeks ago while you were wasted on Youtube," Roxas whispers into his brother's ears. And within seconds, Roxas is once again on the ground, his brother on top of him freaking out like the world is about to end.

'Hm, doesn't this look familiar,' Roxas thinks to himself. He then quickly punches his brother in the guts, forcing Sora to roll off of Roxas's body. "Yeah, looks very familiar," Roxas says to himself as he rotates his wrists to make sure that they were ok. He then looks over to the girl again.

"So, your name?" Roxas asks with a nervous chuckle. The girl in front of him giggles slightly at his nervous laugh, but it's about time that she gets things started here. She jumps backwards, ten feet up into the air, performs and double backflip, and somehow manages to gracefully land on top of the metal gate.

"The name's Yuffie Kisaragi. 19 years of age, beautiful to say the least, and I'm the second head of the Defense Committee here at Destiny's Mark. There are two reasons as to why you are currently graced with my presence," Yuffie says with a small smile.

'19 and already considered the second head of THE Destiny Mark's Defense Committee. This might be a problem," Roxas scratches the back of his head, and looks over to Sora, who somehow still managed to fall asleep during the short time that has passed. Roxas rubs his eyes, and turns around to Yuffie.

"So, what would those two reasons be Yuffie?" Roxas asks. Yuffie walks along the metal rail like she's on a walk in the park, and then turns her back to the boys. She puts her hand up, and raises her index finger up into the air.

"One reason, the headmaster seems to be very interested in you boys. His reasons are unknown to anyone. He even gave you two free rides into the school. What's more suspicious is that I've looked at your scores. You two don't even excel in anything! Ok, maybe your physical abilities are a little higher than most normal boys your age, but in Destiny Mark's perspective, you're just two normal boys entering a school that's way out of your league. So I came here to meet you personally," Yuffie says with a serious face.

"Yeah, we barely fit the minimum requirements to make it to this school. So what? Maybe the Headmaster just felt like being generous," Roxas says with a shrug. But he knows all too well why he and Sora were given this generous… donation he could say. He just never liked brining it up, and right now would not be any exception. Yuffie catches the lie, but decides to let it go anyways, after all, she would find out all in due time.

"Second reason. The Headmaster, because of his "generosity", told me to test you two before you are able to walk into this school. Yes, you were given a free ride in, but there is actually a small catch to it, which is this test. You can either accept this test, possibly pass, and get into the school, or you can decline and just walk away," Yuffie says. She then turns around and gives an innocent smile. "I would highly suggest you two leave though, if you value your lives that is."

"Wait, can't we ju-" before Roxas could even complete his sentence, he hears an all too familiar chuckle. Roxas lets out a sigh and scratches the back of his head. This girl just peaked Sora's interest, and once you do that, there's absolutely no going back. Sora gets up from laying down, crosses his legs, and rests his head on his right hand. His head is angled just correctly to make his eyes unseen, but his smile is as wide as it could possibly be.

"So, what's the test Yuffie?" Sora asks, holding the same position. Yuffie is a little taken back by his demeanor, but she blows that off too, keeping the smile on her face.

"It's a simple yet modified game of tag. Basically, I'm going to give you ten minutes. My goal is to tag you two before those ten minutes are up. I have to get both of you out to get disqualified. The school grounds is the area that you have to stay in, and you can use anything in it. You two obviously have not yet been integrated with any of your , if you even have anything above a Level 1, but I will be using my Level 1 M.S. You will be able to use any arsenal of your choice, and I will as well. And any injury received from this test will be all for the sake of the test. Any questions?" Yuffie asks.

Roxas's mouth is almost agape. Those terms are obviously beyond unfair. Yes they could survive against her in those then minutes in a game of tag, but this isn't a "simple" game of tag. It's more like the game of the hunter hunting its prey. Roxas knows that even though she says this is a game of tag, she is not going to let Sora or Roxas leave without a mark or two. And she would be using her Level 1 M.S.

"Question!" Sora yells, raising his hand.

"Yes?" Yuffie replies with a smile.

"What's an M.S?" Sora asks, cocking his head to the side. Roxas rubs his eyes in frustration, and Yuffie lets out a sigh.

"Well, looks like someone hasn't been paying attention to the news nor in his classroom. Well then, let me try to put this simply," Yuffie says as she begins to once again walk along the rail. Roxas sits down because he knows this explanation will take a while.

"Around 30 years ago, scientists and magicians gathered to somehow fully unlock the human potential. 5 years later, they managed to do so by creating the M.S, which stands for Materialized Spirit. The crudest definition of Materialized Spirit is basically one's spirit being materialized into the human world in which it can take on several different forms, each form with its own level of difficulty to materialize, the amount of power it has, and each being a different part of your soul." Yuffie looks over to Sora who seems to be looking at her and understanding the information. She continues. "There are four levels of the Materialized Spirit, in which you will learn here at Destiny's Mark, if you make it in of course. I don't really want to go into much more details because this is where even I get confused," Yuffie finishes up.

Roxas did not expect that much of an in depth explanation from Yuffie. On the outside she looks like any frail 19 year old girl, but not only is she probably inhumanely strong, but she isn't very stupid either. This test doesn't look like it's going to end well for them.

"Sora maybe we should just-"

"So, all we have to do is survive for ten minutes only?" Yuffie freezes with the question. The word "only" that came out of Sora's mouth made her hands itch to lunge for her weapon. "Everything is against us. The chances of us actually winning… No… Actually surviving this game are slim assuming you won't hold back. You have some kind of M.S shit up your sleeves. You probably know this place like the back of your hands by now," Sora says as he finally gets up on his feet and starts to walk over to the gate. He places his hand on the metal gate and chuckles. "My weapon of choice is going to be one keyblade: the Kingdom Key." With that, a large silver key with a yellow hilt pops into Sora's hand.

"What?" Yuffie asks out of shock. Not many can use the keyblade. Even though it looks just like a giant toy key, the keyblade is one of the few things that has been boggling the minds of magicians and scientists a like. The strength and deadliness of the weapon seemed to be proportional to what seemed to be the "power of the heart". How to measure this strength is still unknown. Not only that, the kid that didn't seem to give much fucks a minute ago now all of a sudden makes a keyblade appear. Yuffie is fully aware that she has to take extra caution.

"Sora, you know the rules about the keyblade! We are-"

"Roxas, shut your face. Come on, we either pass this test or we get sent running home. Do you want that?" Roxas lets out a sigh, his shoulders slumping.

"We were supposed to go in without causing much of a ruckus… Looks like we're going to be introducing ourselves with guns blazing. Fine, my arsenal is two keyblades, Oblivion and Oathkeeper," Roxas says, and two other keyblades appear in Roxas's hands, however, both are much more intricate in design compared to Sora's keyblade. Oathkeeper is a white keyblade with a small tint of silver, its hilts composed of two angel wings, and the blade is created by two thin yet sharp blades combining at the top to create an intricate star like fang and a heart. Oblivion is a black keyblade, its hilt composed of two devil wings, a single black blade reaching towards the top, along with an anchor like fang at the top.

'Two keyblades? Both of these kids… Were their test scores even correct?' Yuffie thinks to herself. She quickly pushes the thought aside and focuses on her prey.

"Ok, then lets do this. The game starts… Now!" With that, Yuffie jumps around twenty feet in the air to get a better view of the situation that would unfold, almost floating in mid air.

"Damn! Roxas look! She's like a freaking ninja!" Sora yells with amazement.

"Come on Sora, we don't have time for this!" Roxas yells back at Sora. Roxas is the first to go, sprinting down the main entrance field. "Split up Sora! It'll be harder for her to catch both of us!" Roxas yells over at Sora.

"I couldn't agree with you more," Sora says, and he starts to run towards the right wing of the school. The school is a 3 sided rectangle consisting of the right wing, left wing, and in the middle, the main building. Roxas was sprinting towards the main building, while Sora was sprinting towards the right.

"Sorry Roxas. I gotta get one of you before you both enter the building," Yuffie says. With that, she aims herself towards Roxas and shoots down from the sky. Roxas turns his head, and notices that Yuffie is going for him first. He quickly turns around to challenge her head on.

Yuffie quickly takes out four kunais from her leg pocket, and with precision throws them at Roxas. Roxas maneuvers both of his keyblades in almost flawless synchronization, hitting three of the four kunais away, one grazing his right shoulder. He winces from the pain, but quickly puts both his keyblades up in an x formation to block Yuffie's kick that she follows through with. Yuffie then quickly jumps back and lands some distance away from Roxas.

"I'm surprised that you managed to block that kick, not many people can... But I am guessing that it took some toll on you right?" Yuffie says with a smirk. The impact of her kick on Roxas's keyblades sent a giant shockwave through his arm, his muscles now feeling almost like jello. His breathing is also getting heavy, and even his head felt a bit of the shockwave.

"Come on Roxas, I thought you had more in you since you since you could handle two keyblade. Are you going to disappoint me?" Yuffie asks. Roxas takes in a deep breath, and lets it out. He then closes his eyes.

'Focus… Focus. Calm your emotions. Calm yourself. Let everything go, and focus simply on the enemy. Simply… On… The… Enemy,' with that, Roxas opens his eyes quickly and shoots towards Yuffie. Once close enough, Roxas jabs towards her abdomen with Oblivion, in which Yuffie dodges by stepping backwards. He then jumps up into the air, both his keyblades raised above his head, and smashes down onto the ground. Where the keyblades landed is a crater around 5 feet in diameter, but no Yuffie.

"Woooowwww, if I didn't dodge that one, I could've srsly gotten hurt. Looks like you guys aren't so bad after all," Yuffie says scratching her cheeks. Roxas quickly regains his composure.

'This is getting me absolutely nowhere… I need to do something else,' Roxas thinks to himself, his energy quickly draining with every second that passes. Then he thinks of something that could possibly fool Yuffie. 'This just might be crazy enough to work.'

"Well, it's been about three minutes. Why don't we wrap this up Roxas?" Yuffie asks, taking out two more kunais.

"Yeah, why don't we?" Roxas responds. He runs towards Yuffie, and once close enough again, he starts trying to land multiple diagonal slashes across Yuffie's chest, and in return Yuffie continues to dodge. This goes on for a while, when eventually, Roxas tries to drive both of his keyblades into her chest, in which Yuffie jumps up into the air to dodge.

"Now!" Roxas yells. He quickly pulls back his right arm, and throws his Oblivion at Yuffie. Yuffie wasn't expecting such a rash play by Roxas, and focuses in on the keyblade twirling towards her direction. She takes out four more kunais, and throws all six kunais in her hands at Oblivion, which causes the six kunais and the flying Oblivion to parry each other, all seven weapons falling to the ground. Yuffie smiles at her accomplishment, and looks over to Roxas who is… holding his middle finger up at her with no keyblade in either of his hands.

"Turn around," Roxas says with a smirk. Before Yuffie can even react, a large force collides with her back. Within seconds, Oathkeeper shoots Yuffie towards the ground at an incredible speed, causing her to land on the ground like a meteor, causing debris to shoot up into the air. There is a moment before Roxas collapses out of pure exhaustion.

"Damn… That was one hell of a fight," Roxas says closing his eyes. Then all of a sudden, an unexpected weight drops down on his stomach, making him let out a couple of coughs.

"Good try there fella. I actually got hurt! But unfortunately for you, that wasn't really good enough," Roxas opens his eyes to see a scratched, bruised, and smiling Yuffie sitting on his stomach.

"Do you mind getting off my stomach?" Roxas asks. Yuffie chuckles and gets off of Roxas. She then slowly starts to walk off towards the right wing of the building.

"Welp time to go get that little annoying brother of yours, am I right?" Yuffie asks taking out more kunais from her pockets. Roxas lets out a sigh, sits up, and takes out his cell phone, but stops to look at Yuffie.

"Wait, the blade end should've hit your back… How did you not sustain any wounds from that?" Roxas asks out of pure curiosity. Yes, she obtained a couple of scratches and bruises, but there just isn't any sign of the damage the keyblade should have0 done to Yuffie. Yuffie quickly does a 180 degree turn, and lifts her hand.

"Like I said, level-1 M.S," and with that, the wind starts to pick up around Roxas and Yuffie, rushing towards the center of her hand. The wind starts to twirl, and eventually created a mini vortex in her small hands. Roxas lets out a loud groan and lays back down.

"So you're an Air Level-1 M.S. I'm guessing you created some kind of barrier around you at the last second to lessen the impact of the keyblade along with your impact?" Roxas asks. Yuffie raises one of her eyebrows and nods with surprise.

"Wow did not expect a guy like you to figure all that out so quickly. Gotta give you props for that," Yuffie says. "Unfortunately for your brother, now that I released my M.S, this should be a piece of cake. Anyways, catch you around," Yuffie says with a smile, and walks off.

'Ok, so I managed to take up around five minutes of the ten, which means that Sora only has to manage another five minutes with her. However, that was five minutes without Yuffie using her M.S, and she's right: she could probably catch Sora now pretty easily… Or can she...,' Roxas thinks, as he falls back down on his back, his eyes feeling much heavier than before.

"H-Hey, are you ok?" a voice from a distance seems to be asking Roxas. Roxas looks up, his eyes managing to make out a silhouette of what seemed to be a girl with almost translucent blond hair.

"Yeah… I just… need some sleep," Roxas says as he closes his eyes.

"Wait… Ar.. y…" and the rest blurs out as Roxas falls into a slumber.

* * *

'Three minutes left. The right wing is pretty damn big, so if I move around, I could waste a couple more minutes here," Sora thinks to himself as he silently walks through the halls. The school seems to be like his high school that he previously attended back at Traverse Town. Same lockers, same tiles, same damn flickering lights, nothing is that special here.

"Hey, you seem lost. Do you need some help?" a feminine voice calls from behind Sora.

"Nah, thanks for the of-" Sora stops mid-sentence, his brain aborting all activities except to absorb the beauty that was in front of his very eyes. As she walks closer, Sora is able to get a better look at the girl in front of him. She is a little shorter than he was, maybe 5'6", with silky auburn hair cascading down past her shoulders. Her indigo eyes are like deep, vibrant gems, and her nervous and creeped out smile is gleaming white. She is wearing her school uniform as well: a simple white button-up, a light blue bow tie, and a checkered skirt. Also from the look of it, her curves seem to be the perfect size: not too big yet not too small.

"You know, staring at a woman's body before you even introduce your name is quiet rude," Sora quickly turns around to see Yuffie at the end of the hallway. She waves and gives a wide smile to the girl in front of Sora. "Hey Kairi, mind if you step away from him?"

"Come on Yuffie, can't a man enjoy what the world has to offer to him with the short time one such as myself has left to live?" Sora asks with a smirk. Yuffiie is fuming now, her left eye twitching and her hands rolling up into a tight fist.

"I really can't wait to bash your head into the ground you know that?" Sora gives a mischievous smile, and turns around to the so-named Kairi.

"I actually could use your help. Mind if I snag a little bit of your time?" Sora asks with one of his genuine sheepish smile, scratching the back of his head. Kairi blinks a couple of times, and cracks a heart-melting smile herself. Sora almost loses his composure looking at that smile, but he somehow manages to keep his shaking legs from falling.

"Sure Sora, I would love to. But you're going to have to return the favor eventually," Kairi states.

'Wow, this girl… Wait, no Sora. Focus on what's at hand here, not some girl,' Sora thinks to himself, shoving that thought out and refocusing on the predicament that was in front of him. He knows that this is an all or nothing bet, but he's willing to take anything that had even the slightest bit of chance at this point. "Once again, I'm going to have to apologize in advance," Sora says with a sad smile. Kairi raises an eyebrow, obviously questioning what he just said. Before she could ask her question, Sora quickly maneuvers around her, grabbing her wrist and putting it behind her back. He quickly positions the keyblade inches from her neck, and exhales calmly.

"Let the game begin," Sora says with a smirk.

"W-what! What the hell are you doing?" Yuffie exclaims, her eyes flared with concern for the girl that was quite literally taken hostage. Sora looks over to look at Kairi's facial expression on the matter, but to his surprise, she is completely calm. Her eyes are closed, and from what Sora can see, she seems to have this strange and powerful trust in Sora. Sora quickly refocuses on Yuffie, who seems to be having quite the difficult time assessing the situation in front of her.

"Well, according to your rules, we have the entire school and everything in it to our disposal to stay alive yes? Well, looks like God, Buddha, or whoever is up there is really smiling on me today because I just got the perfect weapon: a hostage. Seems like you know this girl. Well then, keep your distance and she doesn't get hurt," Sora says with as little emotion as possible. He puts on his poker face to make sure that Yuffie does not see any emotions that could help her judge and tip the favor on her side again. He has the upper hand now, and he is not going to let it go to waste.

"No, you can't hurt her. You don't have it in you. You can't hurt an innocent civilian," Yuffie says with a smile, but Sora knows that it's only a cover up. He looks beyond the simple confident smile, and he looks for the real signs, which he pinpoints rather easily. He sees her sweaty hands. He sees her tapping her foot. And most importantly, he sees her eyes. Her eyes filled with anxiety, complete loss, and the fear of the near and uncertain future. This fight is over.

"Do you really know me enough to make that assumption Yuffie? Kairi's life is going to be decided by me, and me only, in the next couple of moments. With one easy slice, I can cut her neck and let her bleed to death. And as you said, 'And any injury received from this test will be all for the sake of the test.' So that means that if Kairi were to get injured, I would have nothing on me. I would be free to walk off with murder, and you? You would have the guilt of letting your friend be killed right in front of you on your shoulders for the rest of your life. I don't have that Yuffie. She's a total stranger to me with no connection whatsoever. I have nothing to lose here," Sora says, inching his keyblade closer and close to Kairi's neck. Yuffie's hands start to shake, and she's biting her bottom lip.

"Five," Sora says. Yuffie eyes open wide.

"Four," Sora says again. Yuffie starts to sweat even more.

"Look, can't we just-"

"Three," Sora says cutting her off.

"Hey, come on Sora, look she's just a-"

"Two," Sora says.

"Ok! Ok! You win! I lose!" Yuffie yells. Sora grins and lowers his weapon. As he lowers his weapon, Yuffie quickly creates three air pellet behind her back. Once the air pellets hits Sora in his vitals, that'll give Yuffie enough time to get him off of Kairi and tag him. She smirks and says, "Looks like it's game over Sora."

"You're right, it is game over," Sora says with a wide grin. Yuffie looks at Sora, wondering what he was talking about, but all he does is point to the clock at the end of the hall. Yuffie turns around, to be met with the time. "It's been ten minutes and ten seconds since the game's started. I win Yuffie. You lose," Sora says triumphantly, allowing his keyblade to disappear.

"But… You… The… I'm going to freaking ki-"

"Yuffie, the young man won fair and square. Have some sportsmanship won't you?" Yuffie looks behind her head to see someone she was not expecting.

"Zach? What are you-"

"Before Yuffie goes on her little rampage, Mister Strife I presume?" the man asks with a serious face. Sora simply nods his head, not knowing who the man in front of him is, but if Yuffie has to listen to him, then he must be someone big. There is a moment of absolute silence, the atmosphere heavy with anticipation as to what the man was going.

"My name is Zach Fair, and on the behalf of the faculty and students, I welcome to Destiny's Mark," Zach says cracking a large smile. Sora loosens up and cracks a smile as well.

"Well, I'm glad that went smoothly."

* * *

**A.N And Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the end of chapter one! I will be trying to upload chapters in one to two week intervals, and as readers, you could always help quicken that pace or help me improve on my writing by simply putting a review! Critiques are encouraged and greatly appreciated, but simple compliments always help boost my motivation to write more. So, please review, like, follow, whatever you readers do, and have a fantastic day. TheCraziestOfAll signing out. **


	2. Level-1

**A.N: Ok folks! So as promised, this chapter has been updated in one to two weeks time. Hurray! So, I won't say much in the beginning and let you guys and gals read. Enjoy. **

* * *

Roxas slowly opens his eyes to meet a world in which everything is simply a blur. He quickly rubs his eyes to reorient himself, and then he slowly gets up from… bed? Roxas's eyes open wider, and he looks around his surroundings. Around him are three white curtains that drape down to the ground, creating a small cell just for Roxas.

"What?... Where the hell am I?" Roxas asks himself as he pulls the thin wool blanket off of him and swings his legs over the side of the bed. He rubs his eyes to try and alleviate the weight on his eyelids, which he fails to do so, and he lets out a sigh. He pulls towards the edge of the bed, his bare feet make contact with the floor, and he gets up, reaching high above his heads to try and stretch his body.

"E-excuse me… A-are you feeling better?" Roxas turns around, and is met by a girl sitting on a chair right next to the bed. This girl however is no simple girl. She is around 5'5", a little above Roxas's shoulders, and is one of the most beautiful girls that he has ever met in his life up to this point. The girl's skin is almost as pale as a silver moon, which he considers absolutely divine, and her rich blue eyes are intoxicating to look at. She seems to be a little on the skinny side, simply wearing a very plain white dress that goes down to her knees, but Roxas doesn't mind it at all. Rather, he finds it that much more attractive: sometimes simple is better. Then he notices the blonde hair.

"Wait… Your hair… I think I saw it before I passed out," Roxas says closing his eyes and tapping the side of his head with his finger, trying to recall the memory of what happened before he passed out. "Lets see… Well, we got up this morning, had to sprint over to the school, took a test… Wait! The test! Ah crap, I gotta go find Sora! Oh man, he better not have screwed up. Ah, shit, what if we-" he is interrupted when he hears the girl giggling at the sight that is unfolding in front of her.

'Nice going smart one. One hell of a first impression. She probably thinks you're crazy as fuck now,' Roxas thinks to himself, giving himself a mental slap across the face.

"Hey, are you ok? Your face just… changed…" Roxas quickly escapes from his mind, and gives a nervous chuckle himself, scratching the back of his head.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. So, I think now would be a pretty good time to introduce ourselves?" Roxas asks. He opens the drapes around him and walks over to the doorway of what is probably the infirmary of the school. He then looks down to see that he is somehow wearing a new clean school uniform. He turns his head quickly and points to himself. "Uh… Did you… possibly…" The girl cocks her head to the right, a questioning frown on her face. She looks at where he's pointing, but doesn't really understand what he is trying to get at.

"Y-you know… I noticed I have some new clothes on… S-so I was simply wondering if… You know..." Roxas's sentence trails off into a very quiet mumble, and the girl quickly picks up on what he's trying to say. Roxas knows that he himself is blushing like mad, but the blush on the girl's face in front of him makes her whole head look like a ripe strawberry.

"I-I… Uh, I mean, y-you were pretty d-dirty. I-I didn't m-mean anything b-b-bad by it! I s-swear that I d-d-didn't look! I didn't even touch! Oh god, this is so embarrassing," the girl says, covering her eyes with both her hands, trying to test the saying of, "If I can't see you, you can't see me."

"Uh, but you did change my clothes, right? I mean, it's totally ok if you did, I was just… Wondering," Roxas states matter of factly, even though his face betrays his voice and tone. The girl then starts to quickly walk towards Roxas, paying little heed to her surroundings.

"W-wait! It's really not what you might think! I was just trying to help out! Oh god, I must look like such a pervert. Please, I really didn't do anything that wou- Ah!" the girl's right foot steps on top of a fallen pill container that was lying there, oh so conveniently, causing her to fall forward. Roxas reacts quickly to this, and gets in front of her to catch her. However, Roxas's recovering body still isn't prepared for the full force of the falling girl, causing Roxas to fall backwards with the girl in his arms.

_Pak_

Roxas's back flats out, his head hitting the ground from the whiplash causing him to close his eyes from the pain. He lets out a low groan, indicating the pain that is now present on his back and the back of his head. However, when he opens his eyes, he notices that his face is a little too close to someone else's. No, little too close would be an understatement because there is maybe around one to two centimeters between the tip of their noses. If Roxas thought that the girl's face was red before, he was flat out wrong because the girl's face right now is probably a couple shades darker than the one he saw before. She was indeed on top of Roxas, her body bearing down on top of his. Certain areas touching certain areas.

'Ok Roxas, play it off like no big deal. Come on, don't blow this man,' Roxas thinks to himself.

"So, your name?" Roxas asks, now undergoing some intense eye contact with the girl that is now invading his personal bubble. It takes a moment for what he says to register to his brain, and once he notices, he winces and turns his head away from what he believes is his absolutely mind boggling stupidity. 'Really Roxas? Her name?! You asked for her name again and now? Oh god, what an idiot.' He thinks to himself again, and gives himself another mental slap.

"Naminé," Roxas turns his head back to Naminé, only this time, for some strange reason, both of their heads now seem to be even close to each other if that is even possible. Her eyes now have his full attention, and for some reason, both of their heads continue to close the small gap they have, millimeter by millimeter. "Naminé's the name," Naminé whispers now, their lips so close that one could barely put one's index finger in between.

"Well, **Naminé**, looks like someone's getting really comfy with the new guy. Quite literally. Look, look, she's on top of him. Looks like she even made the first move, very unusual for the shy girl," the new voice causes both couples' heads to move away from each other to see the unintended visitors at the door.

"K-Kairi!" Naminé yells in surprise as she quickly picks herself off of Roxas's body and dusts off her white dress, and offers a hand to help Roxas gets up. Roxas accepts the hand, and he himself gets up to dust off the back of his pants and rub the back of his aching head.

"Well well well, would ya look at that. Not even here for more than three hours and you're already all chummy with a girl. I always knew you had it in you Roxas," Roxas simply shakes his head. He looks at Sora and at the girl named Kairi right next to him who… for some reason is very similar to Naminé. However, her skin tone is a little bit tanner, and instead of blonde hair, her hair is deep auburn.

"Shut up Sora. You're the one to talk, aren't you?" Roxas says giving a smirk back, but his brother was always good with hiding his true emotions, and now is not an exception for Sora's secret mastery. However, prodding him now would only lead to more turmoil, so Roxas doesn't push the matter on any more. Instead, he decides to touch on the hot topic that hasn't been brought up yet.

"So… Sora… The test?" Roxas asks, not even asking the question in a full sentence, his heart rating starting to increase. Sora looks over at Roxas, lowers his head. Roxas's heart sinks, making him release another sigh today. "Look, Sora, it's ok… We'll just ha-"

"We got in!" Sora yells with such brilliant exuberance that it makes Roxas take a couple steps back from the sheer power. Roxas is silent at first, the three words sinking into his stomach, then he lets out a nervous chuckle.

"We got in?"

"We got in."

"We got in?!"

"Hell yeah we got in!"

"Yes! We got in!" Roxas yells at the top of his lungs, running towards Sora and giving him a bear hug. Sora simply replies in the same manner, returning the monster of a hug that Roxas is giving. Roxas is the first to release the hug, and nods towards Sora. "We came this far, no going back now right?" Sora simply gives a smirk.

"What kind of question is that Roxas? We're heading for the top now," Sora says as he lightly punches his brother's shoulders.

"Sorry to break your little Bromance moment here, but we should really get going. We have to show you around, and then in the evening, we have to get you ready to take your Proficiency Exam," Kairi says as she walks over to the door and opens it.

"What's this proficiency exam you're talking about Kairi?" Sora asks as he walks out first, Roxas Naminé following him, and eventually Kairi walks out and closes the door.

"The Proficiency Exam is simply a tool that tells us how powerful someone is and how much potential that someone has in the future. Now, don't go and treat it as if it's a simple test. It's going to test your limits to some extent, so I recommended that you boys get a little rest before tomorrow. Naminé and I will come escort you two over to the testing room at 10 A.M. That sound good?" Kairi asks as they continue down the hallway. Roxas and Sora share a look, and both shrug at what Kairi just said.

"Well, it's not like we can actually say no to this," Sora says slowing down to get by Kairi's side. Kairi gives a slight chuckle and nods to this.

"Yeah, it's sort of mandatory. But it does help decide what classes you take, and most importantly, your Rank in this school," Kairi says matter of factly.

"Uh, mind me asking what you mean by 'Rank'?" Roxas asks as they finally exit the school building and start walking towards.

"Your Rank is basically a simple number that helps distinguish your abilities compared to others. Destiny's Mark holds around 2000 students, so there are 2000 ranks. Rank 1 being the highest rank possible, meaning you are the strongest student in the school, and rank 2000 being the exact opposite: the lowest of all of us," Naminé says as they eventually reach a small park that is behind the school. They all decide to take a seat on a couple of benches, Roxas and Naminé on one, Kairi and Sora on another.

"Is there a way to raise your rank, or decrease it?" Sora asks. Roxas just hopes that he isn't going to use this information to get himself injured on the first couple days of school.

"There are a couple ways to rank up or down. One is pretty simple, take on school missions. As you know, the darkness is slowly becoming more and more powerful. It's one of the main reasons Destiny's Mark was created. The school offers jobs, and completing those jobs to a certain extent gives you rewards such as money, items, and quite possibly, a rank up," Kairi says.

"Another way is to duel someone of a different rank. If you really wanted to, you could battle someone of a higher rank, and if you win, their rank will switch with your rank. There are certain rules to dueling, but that can be explained later you know?" Naminé states this time.

"Lastly, just wait. The Proficiency Exam is taken bi-annually, and basically, your rank is probably going to go up if you pay attention in school and do what you're supposed to. Of course, this is probably the least efficient way to raise your ranks," Kairi states the final option. Sora nods his head as he absorbs the information given to him. Sora then looks over to Roxas, who is also absorbing the information in, but unlike Sora, Roxas is trying to create the very plan that they would need. Kairi then looks down at her watch and gets up from the bench.

"Ok, so, it's around two o'clock in the afternoon now. I know that Naminé and I are supposed to help you look around, but you're big boys and we have homework and shit to accomplish. So do whatever you want. I guess you could go back to your apartment, but in the end, it's your time now," Kairi said with a smile. Sora simply nods again to this, and he himself gets off the bench.

"Fine by me. I need a nap anyways. What about you Roxas?" Sora asks Roxas. Roxas is broken from his train of thought. He quickly shakes his head to reorient himself to where he is right now.

"Well, I'd still like to know some of the school more, so I guess I'll walk around the campus a little bit. It'll be nice to know where I'm supposed to be heading when I actually do come here to take classes," Roxas says with a smile. Once he says that, Kairi and Sora both send a quick glance over to Naminé who, feels the force of their eyes pushing down on her. Roxas simply doesn't notice, and turns his head to see Naminé and asks, "What about you Naminé?"

"I-I… Uh…" The stares of Kairi and Sora soon become evil sadistic stares, smirks showing on both of their faces that are burning through Naminé's defence mechanisms set up against peer pressure. Naminé slowly starts to blush as well, and soon enough, she lowers her head and lets out a defeated sigh and says, "I could help you tour the school more in depth if you wanted to Roxas."

"Really? That'd be great!" Roxas says with happy enthusiasm. Sora and Kairi both give each other a smirk and start to walk off to leave the future blonde couples to do… What future blond couples do. Once they are some distance away from Roxas and Naminé, Sora gives a quick glances towards Kairi.

"So, Kairi, not to sound hostile or anything, but what rank are you?" Sora asks Kairi. Kairi taps her chin, thinking about when she took her Proficiency Exam around two weeks ago when school actually started.

"Well, if I remember correctly, I am around rank 1354. For a freshman, that basically means I'm almost as strong as what the middle ranking sophomore would be," Kairi points out simply. Sora's mouth almost drops, almost the keyword here. He keeps his composure, and nods his head slowly. Kairi looks over to Sora, and gives a small giggle. Sora simply raises an eyebrow to question her behavior.

"Hahaha, sorry Sora. It's just that you're like an open book. I can read what you're feeling like a mile away," Kairi says with a slight smile. Sora's eye open a little wider, and he lets out a sigh to show his defeat.

"Sorry Kairi. It's just that I have to reach the top no matter what," Sora says clenching his own fist. He then quickly looks at Kairi with a grin and says, "Just a stupid personal reason is all. But I'm going to get there no matter the price. I might sound like a little naive brat that has no idea what he's getting into. However…" Sora then looks up at the sky, the endless blue sky. He puts his hand up, opening it as wide as he possibly can. He then clenches his fist again, trying to grasp at something in that vast space in front of him. He then lets the hand drop to his side, giving Kairi a look of determination and say, "It's just something that I can't give up on. Not until I give it everything I have to offer... and more." He then looks away, silence hanging in the air.

'She probably thinks like I'm an idiot. A narcissistic bastard who is only out for power and fame. Who wouldn't?' Sora thinks to himself as he waits for a response.

"You know Sora… I think this will be a very interesting Proficiency Exam," surprised, Sora whips his head around to Kairi. Instead of the disappointed, disgusted look that he assumed would be there, there is a genuine, heart-felt smile on her face. The smile of a goddess that seems to just say, "It's all ok." That's when he cracks, the smile breaks his walls. So quickly, so easily, Sora is at lost for words. All he can do is blush and keep staring deep into her eyes. Then Kairi's cellphone goes off, causing their little moment to be broken.

"Yeah… Yeah he's here… Wait, are you sure? Right now?... Ok… Yeah I'll bring him over," Kairi then takes the cell phone off her ear and clicks the end button. Sora looks at Kairi, raising an eyebrow to question what the phone call was about, assuming that it is about him.

"Sora, you're going to have to come with me."

* * *

"Well Sora, we sort of had to schedule your Proficiency Exam a little early because the Headmaster wanted to see it personally. No pressure. So, any questions?" Yuffie asks Sora. Sora looks at Yuffie, then back at Kairi, then back at Yuffie, then back at Kairi, and then looks at Yuffie.

"Why are you here?" Sora asks crossing his arms. Yuffie simply giggles, jumping over to Kairi and giving her a very scandalous hug, putting her arms around Kairi's waist, while staying afloat with her MS, puts her head on Kairi's shoulders, her mouth very close to Kairi's neck. She gives a smirk towards Sora.

"Oh, you know. Gotta get my daily dose of Kairi. I didn't come here for you Sora, don't worry. I like my men with dignity and pride," Yuffie says, gently stroking the side of Kairi's face with the back of her hand. Kairi's face lights up red from embarrassment from Yuffie's touch, while Sora's face lights up from Yuffie's insult.

"Anyways Sora. Before we get your Proficiency Exam underway, we need to see if you can unlock your level-1 MS," Yuffie says getting off of Kairi and walking over to the entrance to the building that they were supposed to meet at. It seems to be an apartment complex, around fifteen stories tall, and red bricks compiled on top of each other to create the walls of the rather bland building.

"So what are we doing here?" Sora asks as he follows Yuffie towards the door. Yuffie simple ignores his question, and instead of opening the front door, she turns at the last second and begins to walk down the side of the building. Sora looks at Kairi, pointing at Yuffie as if she is joking with them right now, but Kairi gives him a nervous smile and follows Yuffie. Sora simply shakes his head and follows as well. They eventually reach the corner, and right before Yuffie turns the corner, she stops.

"Yeah, Merlin, we're here! Take down your annoying… invisible… shield thing. I don't even remember how you do it, but we have to come in," Yuffie says talking to what seems like empty space. Before Sora can ask Yuffie if her mentality is there at all, a small house appears out of thin air right next to the apartment. The house is a little run down, the windows grey with dust, the yellow paint on the exterior slowly fading away, the shingles on the roof slowly falling apart, and the doors seem to have large scratch marks leaving deep imprints on the wooden door in the front. The beaten down door then opens wide to introduce an old man to the big ol' smiling sun.

"Oh! Oh my! Someone has got to turn that blasted light off!" the old man yells, covering his eyes. The old man seems to be around his late 60s to early 70s. He is a bit on the short side, but that is probably because of his hunched back. He's a rather pale fellow, his arms and legs showing from what seems to be a blue robe are almost like sticks. He is also wearing glasses, a pointed blue conical hat, and not to mention his monster of a beard that seems to reach his ankles.

"Why am I here again?" Sora whispers over to Kairi, still looking at the man that seems to be undergoing a battle with the sun.

"Because he's the one that's going to help unlock your level-1 MS," Yuffie states matter of factly. Sora's interest peaks a little bit.

"Now how is this man, that hasn't seen the sun in ages apparently, going to help me get that?" Sora asks, crossing his arms with a slight smirk on his face. Yuffie lets out a sigh and turns around with a slight frown on her face.

"You know, sometimes I wonder why the hell I still haven't kicked her face to smithereens yet. If you must know, this is Merlin," Yuffie says, putting her hand up towards Merlin, who is now not even there anymore. Sora does all he can to make sure that he does not laugh at Yuffie's epic failure.

"Come on inside! You young fellows make yourselves at home. I'll be with you in just one moment!" Merlin yells from somewhere inside the house. Yuffie walks straight in shaking her head, then Kairi, and lastly Sora enters the house, closing the door behind him. When Sora turns around, he is met with a dimly lit room with books piled on top of each other, books scattered around the ground, and books on top of tables. The furniture is barely recognizable because of all the books surround the place.

"Oh my god… I've entered book worm heaven," Sora says as he is quite impressed with the amount of books the old man has piled up throughout the countless years that he's been alive. He then follows Yuffie into another room which is set up with a table four chairs, a small candle lamp on top of the table to illuminate the room, and again, books stacks tall enough to reach the ceiling covering the room.

"Ah yes, these days this old man has nothing to do except just that. Read. Anyways, Sora Strife, this meeting isn't to talk about what an old man like me does on his free time, but more about you. I was told to help you unlock your level-1," Merlin says, taking a sip of his tea that was not there before. Sora takes a seat as well, and with a flick of Merlin's hand, a can of coke appears in front of Sora. Merlin smiles and says, "Assuming you would prefer those soft drinks than tea." Sora nods, opening the can, and taking a sip.

"Ok, so before we get started, a formal introduction is probably a good idea. My name is Merlin. Merlin the Magician. It's a pleasure to meet you Sora," Merlin says, taking another sip of his tea.

"The pleasure's actually all mine. The name's Sora, as you already seem to know. So… Uh… Sorry to sound ignorant and rude, but what do you do? You know, other than reading books. Yuffie makes you out to be some guy, but I'm not seeing anything other than some magic," Sora asks not holding back. Yuffie smacks her forehead from frustration, and before she can say anything to Sora, Merlin starts to crack up, almost letting go of his tea cup that's in his hand right now.

"Oh ho ho ho, this is indeed an interesting day. It's refreshing to not be known. Well Sora, as you can see now, I am simply a man stuck in his studies. The outside world has no more interests for a man like me Sora. I've seen the world and what it has to offer, but you have not. Simply think of me as… a guide," Merlin says with a sad smile, memories seemingly coming and going.

"B-but Merlin! You're not going to tell him that you're the-"

"Ah ah ah Yuffie. It would be better if he doesn't know. But from the looks of things, even if we were to tell him, Sora here probably wouldn't give a toot. So keep that blabbering mouth shut," Merlin says frowning, escaping from his thoughts. There is a moment of silence before Yuffie growls slightly and rests her chin on the table. Merlin shakes his head, then looks over to Sora another time and says, "So Sora, lets get your M.S started."

"Wait, before we continue. Can you go into M.S a little more? Yuffie explained it earlier today, but I still don't quite understand it yet," Sora says crossing his arms and leaning back on his chair. Merlin nods to Sora's request and clears his throat.

"Well Sora, as Yuffie probably put it, M.S an acronym for Materialized Spirit. And as she probably also explained to some extent, the Materialized Spirit is a technique, well, more like a doorway, for a part of your spirit to materialize into our world," Merlin states. He gets up from his seat, walks over to a stack of books, and takes a book from the middle of the stack without the twenty book stack somehow crumbling. He walks back over to the table and opens the book. The two page spread is yellow with age, the edges missing pieces of paper, and on the right side of the pages, it is covered with writings of a different that is beyond recognizable to the teenagers. Merlin gives a slight chuckle of amusement at the children's confusion, but then points his index finger to the left page.

"I want to focus on this picture to help you get a better understanding of an M.S Sora. The M.S's main source of power is one's soul, as one can imagine, but the soul as a whole was and still is something unimaginable, something incalculable; our human minds cannot come close to comprehending the power a single soul holds. And because of that, many thought that the power to control one's soul was unthinkable, almost god like," Merlin says, pointing to a picture where a circle of light is held high above in the sky, beyond the reach of the people on the ground reaching for it.

"Wait, then how does the M.S exist?" Sora asks, scratching his head, becoming even more confused. Merlin flips the page.

"Yes, but humans are rather funny creatures don't you think so? We hear of the impossible, yet we still strive for that impossibility. And because of that, and through years of research, scientists and magicians that were working together came to an extraordinary realization: the soul has multiple layers. Because we were able to make that endless power into something we can somewhat calculate, we can take some of it and control it," Merlin says pointing to four circles that are all concentric to each other, each circle getting smaller as it goes to the middle. Merlin then puts his finger down on the outer layer of the picture and says, "And that brings us to you Sora. This is what we are here to help you with today: your level-1 M.S." Merlin then closes the book, moving it to the side of the table. Sora's head seems to be throbbing with the information that was just thrown in his face in the past 2 minutes, but he understands the general gist of the whole thing.

"Ok Merlin. What do I have to do?" Sora asks. Merlin smiles and gets off his chair.

"Come with me."

* * *

"Come lay down Sora," Merlin says, pointing to a small twin sized bed in the new room that everyone moved to. It isn't any different than the room before, however, this one is a little bit smaller, and instead of a table in the middle, there is the bed. Sora walks on over, gets on the bed, and quickly lies down, putting his hands behind his head to act as a pillow.

"Ok… So you never really mentioned this, but what does the level-1 M.S allow me to do?" Sora asks, staring into the ceiling.

"The level-1 M.S allows your spirit to give you the power to have very high attunement with a certain element of this world," Merlin says. He then points to Yuffie and says, "As your brother Roxas experienced, Yuffie's level-1 M.S gives her the ability to control the air."

"Wait, but isn't magic already a thing? Why is this level-1 M.S so important then?" Sora asks, getting up from his position and looking at Merlin.

"Yes, it is true that everyone can use magic such as Fire and Firaga, or Thunder and Thundaga. However, the level-1 M.S is a little different. The level-1 M.S works off of power given by your outer layer spirit. That outer layer spirit is the basis of your personality Sora" Merlin says.

"Ok, so where are you going with this?" Sora asks, his head starting to hurt a little more from all this information.

"In other words, and to put it simply, your personality has some kind of attunement with a specific element Sora. And once your level-1 M.S is unlocked, allowing you to gain affinity with that element… You'll see the difference between it and the spells that are available to all today," Merlin says. Sora simply nods, and lies back down on the bed. Merlin then takes out a vial filled with purple liquid, pops the cork cap off, and gives it to Sora.

"Now Sora, to unlock your level-1 M.S, it's not too difficult, but there is a small test that you have to go through. That drink will allow you to enter into a phase to complete the test for your level-1 M.S. I cannot tell you what the test will be like because for every person it is different. All I can tell you is good luck," Merlin says. Sora looks at the vial nervously, a loud _gulp_ coming from his throat. He takes in a deep breath, and quickly downs the liquid in the vial. Soon, everything starts to get hazy, and his eyes become heavier and heavier with each passing second. Then his eyes close as he is then met by darkness.

* * *

"Where… Where am I?" Sora asks, but is met by silence. He feels his feet are on some kind ground, so he is standing on top of something. However, the darkness is giving him a hard time orienting himself to the new environment that he still knows nothing about. He takes in a deep breath to try and keep his composure, but for some reason, this feeling of panic is stirring slightly inside his stomach.

_Utter Darkness_

"**Welcome Sora Strife." **Sora turns his head to the source of the voice, but he once again sees nothing.

_Utter Darkness_

"Who's there?" Sora asks to the unknown owner of the voice.

_Utter Darkness_

"**Who are you, Sora Strife?" **

_Utter Darkness_

"W-what are you talking about?"

_Utter Darkness_

"**What are you, Sora Strife?"**

_Utter Darkness_

"Look here, jus-"

"**What do you see Sora Strife?"**

"_Utter darkness,"_ Sora says without even knowing. He quickly catches himself, and once what he says registers inside his head, the panic in his stomach grows even stronger. Gnawing. Ripping. Kicking. Literally. Sora kneels, his hands over the pain on his stomach.

"**Are you afraid Sora Strife?" **Sora is simply in too much pain to respond to the voice.

"**You are afraid Sora Strife. For what reason? You know it yourself more than anyone."**

"Stop…"

"**You are weak."**

"No!"

"**You are powerless."**

"You bitch…"

"**You. Have. Nothing."**

"What do you want?!" Sora yells into the darkness. There is another moment of silence.

"**I want nothing, yet I want everything. You, Sora Strife. What do you want? You want power. Yes I know. You want power, yet you are in this dark place. This dark, dark place, with nothing you can do to get out. I can give you power Sora Strife, if you take my offer."**

"What's this… Ugh… Fabulous offer you gotta give, huh?" Sora responds with sarcasm to the voice, the pain in his stomach increasing with every second that passes.

"**Become part of the darkness. Spread the darkness. Be the darkness. The darkness can present you with powers beyond your wildest imagination. Join me, and I will give you power." **This time, there is a moment of silence from Sora. His head is bent, knees still on the ground, but his hands slowly go from his stomach to his sides. Then, a small chuckle escapes from Sora, which eventually grows to a full out laugh.

"**What is so funny Sora Strife?" **

"Hahaha… You know, this entire situation reminds me of something. A long time ago, my mother used to tell me a story. You probably know of it too. Hell who hasn't. The story of Pandora's Box," Sora says, getting off his knees and sits with his legs straight and his arms behind him. Just mentioning the story eases the pain in Sora's stomach, so he continues.

"Pandora's Box. The bitch couldn't hold her curiosity and had to open that box. All that darkness, all the bad things in our lives today, they all just poured out of that small box. Along with one other thing. That one other thing came out too."

"**What is that 'thing' Sora Strife?" **Sora gives the silence a moment. A moment to register the things he is trying to say. He takes in a deep breath, and then lets it out, closing his eyes.

"Hope… That last thing out of that box was Hope for people like her… For people just like me. This whole situation. Me joining the academy. Me unlocking my M.S. Me meeting you…" Sora stops for a second, letting the silence float in the air; letting his words travel through the darkness. Then he chuckles and says, "Hey I don't know what you are. I don't give a shit about who you are either. But I'm gonna decline that offer with all your 'darkness' business. Instead, I'm gonna bet everything on something else."

"**What is that 'thing' Sora Strife?"**

"The strongest yet weakest weapon that all human beings have: Hope," Sora says. Then, a large beam of light shoots down from above, covering Sora. The beam of light makes the pain in Sora's stomach disappear, and starts to make Sora feel very drowsy.

"**If 'Hope' is your answer Sora Strife, then you will become 'Hope'."**

"Hell yeah I will… And I'll teach you… A lesson… Eventually…" And with that Sora enters into a slumber, slowly being lifted up by the light.

"**Hope Sora Strife… Hope. For that is all you can do."**

* * *

**A.N: Ok! So, hope that lil' romance part in the beginning was done somewhat well ( ;) ), and overall, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to have the next chapter up in a week or two. But once again, please review! It can be critiques about how I write or the story plot, just a small comment saying you enjoyed or didn't enjoy, or if you see a simple grammar error or spelling mistake, point it out. It makes a difference guys. Anyways, thanks for taking your time to read this update, and hope you all have a great day. TheCraziestOfAll signing out. **


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